They’d saved him in ways he only realized after the fact. He’d given him someone to love, someplace to hide when war was too brutal, and someone to have his back.
Until he didn’t.
Yes, he nearly died protecting Graham, but it had been worth it—until he found out the man didn’t trust in him at all for those years.
Or what they’d had.
Still, he couldn’t remove it.
That seemed…
Wrong.
Seeing it brought back the memories of both men getting them.
They’d been in Italy on leave after a particularly tough joint NATO mission.
Those tattoos took plenty of sneaking around. They’d had to go to different tattoo places, so no one figured out that they’d gotten matching ones.
The‘no one’being people they served with in their units.
Being gay as a Marine, or Black Watch…it was dangerous.
To their wellbeing.
So, they did it on the DL, came back to the hotel for their leave, and showed each other.
Then, they made love forHOURS.
They’d celebrated finally having that person as their own for the rest of their lives.
In that moment, that was when Michael started making plans to marry this man.
And when it went south.
Leaving the man’s shirt on him, since it wasn’t dirty, he tucked him into the bed, and sat there staring at Graham. The whole time, he took in how time had aged him.
And he wondered if there’d been anyone else.
There was no ring on his finger, and everyone told him that the man had never moved on, but was it so much to ask to find proof of that?
Why?
He didn’t know.
The last thing he needed was proof when it came to this man since they weren’t a couple, but he really wished he could figure it out.
As he lay in bed, he looked peaceful, but he was betting he was anything but that.
Michael was thinking about the words he screamed out into the darkness, and the pain he’d heard there. It made him…curious.
No.
It made him desperate to find out the truth.
Was what everyone had told him about Graham never giving up on him right?
Did Graham still love him?
